


Ten Styles of Story

by nagia



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 14:05:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagia/pseuds/nagia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten miniature stories for Rurouni Kenshin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Styles of Story

**Author's Note:**

> No, I don't know either.

01; ACTION; KEMPO IS KUNG FU; AOSHI  
That his opponent thinks he's not dangerous when he's unarmed shows he's an idiot. The feel of the man's nose against the sole of his foot as he proves that idea wrong is satisfying—although, he admits, perhaps he just likes to kick people in the face.

02; ANGST; YOUR DISTANCE, YOUR SILENCE; MISAO, AOSHI  
"Please," she says, "please," but he doesn't reply, doesn't even look her way, doesn't even touch the tea she's poured him and for the first time since he told her never to show her face to him again, she feels real despair.

03; AU; MAIDEN VOYAGE; AOSHI, MISAO  
The only reason it works is that she's tiny enough to fit in one of the ship's many nooks; she's the one on the inside, half supported by him, half supported by the nook itself. One of his hands fogs up the cool metal he braces himself against while the other grips the back of her neck, cradling her as close as he can.

04; CHILDHOOD; SHAPE, GUIDANCE; BESHIMI, MISAO  
"And this," the man who's no taller than she is says, pressing a knife into her hands and guiding her arm, "is how you throw."

05; DEATH; MARIONETTE; AOSHI, ONIWABANSHUU  
He's tasting their blood in his mouth; or maybe it's his own. He doesn't rise from his knees until he has to, moves a numb body like a puppet with a numb soul for string.

06; HORROR; HIDE AND SEEK; SAITOU  
Saitou's entire body throbs in response to the bruises and the bumps and the cuts. He stands anyway, forces himself to search the dead for red hair and a cross-shaped scar, stands and isn't certain what he feels when he realizes that Battousai has escaped certain death once more.

07; HUMOR; WOMEN'S WORK; AOSHI, MISAO, KENSHIN  
"Laundry," Aoshi says, tone flat, not a remote hint in his voice of the disbelief Misao knows he feels (and she only knows because she knows him).

"Yep," she chirps, just to irritate him, "Himura's off doing laundry." She gives him a sly grin. "You wouldn't want to join him, would you?"

08; HURT/COMFORT; STAYING HERE; KAORU, KENSHIN  
The first thing Kaoru does once they've returned home, after she takes a bath to wash the smell of Enishi's base from her skin, is hustle Kenshin off to a private corner of the dojo. She cups his face in her hands and gently presses her lips against his, not daring to be rough because he seems so fragile, and when she breaks the kiss she whispers, against his mouth, "I promise, I’m not going anywhere."

09; LITERARY; A SACRIFICE OF MYSELF TO MYSELF; ENISHI  
Virgin sacrifice, he thinks, her marriage bed is her deathbed is her grave; in his mind's eye, the only thing he sees is her red blood on silken sheets of white white snow, her pale, limp body cast aside, never to rise again. When he kills the family that took him in, they are a sacrifice to a sacrifice and his sister's dead face smiles.

10; WAFF; HEALING HANDS; SANO, MEGUMI  
The touch of Megumi's hands on his destroyed right fist is gentle as she rubs an ointment on the mangled skin and then bandages it back up.

"Thank you," he says, and means it; the smile she gives him in reply is radiant.


End file.
